Chapter 8

Commissioning Mindfulness Training in the Workplace

In This Chapter

Introducing mindfulness training to your organisation

Getting to grips with the different approaches

Making sure that you pick the right mindfulness teacher or coach

I ntroducing mindfulness to an organisation can be a daunting experience, but it needn’t be. This chapter provides key things to consider when piloting mindfulness within your organisation. If you follow the steps detailed in this chapter you should create a win-win scenario. Your staff benefit, the organisation benefits and you look good for having the idea and following it through. We make a start by looking at the basics.

Bringing Mindfulness Training to Work

There are a number of ways that you could introduce mindfulness to your organisation. This section will help you establish what you hope to achieve, which in turn will help you select the best approach.

Starting with the end in mind

As with all effective personal and professional development initiatives, you should always start with the end in mind. The first question to ask yourself is what outcomes you’re hoping to achieve. To put it another way, you need to identify what you hope will be different (in organisational and individual terms) immediately after and in the months following the programme.

Choosing from the menu of possibilities

Mindfulness can help your organisation and your staff in many ways, some of which are easier to evaluate than others. Possible benefits that mindfulness can bring to your organisation include:

When you’ve decided on the most desirable outcomes you’re seeking to achieve, you need to state them as learning and development ( L&D) outcomes. These desired outcomes can form the basis of discussion with mindfulness trainers, and ensure that those leading the project have a clear idea of what ‘success’ looks like to you.

Outcomes should always be demonstrable, so they must always be written in behavioural terms. Outcomes are different to aims and objectives. Aims and objectives are usually shared with participants before or at the start of the course. Outcomes are there to help the organisation shape the structure, order and evaluation of the course and aren’t normally shared with participants. Think carefully before sharing outcome statements with participants as doing so may positively or negatively impact on the evaluation data. When presented at the outset with the outcomes the organisation wishes to achieve, some participants report overly positive outcomes as they wish to promote mindfulness within the organisation. Others may play down the outcomes for a variety of personal reasons.

Here are a few example outcomes for a taster (introductory) session and full pilot (see the section ‘Considering options for introductions and pilots’ for more info on these session types), respectively:

Example of outcomes for a mindfulness at work taster session

Your outcome statement may read as follows.

‘By the end of the session, participants will:

Example outcomes for a mindfulness at work pilot

Your outcome statement may read as follows:

‘By the end of the eight-week course, participants will:

Building in evaluation

When considering introducing mindfulness (which for some members of staff may be regarded as radical), you need to be able to justify your decision to do so in business terms. Gathering robust evaluation data relating to measures that matter to your organisation is essential.

Many people make the mistake of trying to bolt on evaluation measures at the end. To really be effective, they should be ‘designed in’ at the outset. When you’ve agreed on your outcomes, the mindfulness specialist you’re working with should be able to design evaluation measures for your individual mindfulness programme. You can then use these evaluation measures pre- and post-training. You can use an online or corporate survey tool to reduce the work involved. Many free online survey tools do basic analysis of results for you, saving on inputting time and time to complete calculations and statistics. You may find it prudent to make it a condition of attending the course that participants agree to complete both pre- and post-training evaluation questionnaires in a timely manner. Also make sure that participants are happy to have their collective data shared with others in an anonymous format.

Your pre-mindfulness evaluation measures may include:

The post-course evaluation should include the same measures, but you may also wish to include a statement such as:

I feel that mindfulness has helped me …

(Answer choices = No change; To a small extent; To some extent; To a great extent; Significantly.)

Discuss early on who will be conducting the evaluation. Participants may be more willing to share data with an independent person outside the organisation (such as the mindfulness specialist). This external person can then render the data anonymous before it is presented to the organisation. If the participants know in advance that the answers they provide will be anonymous, they’re more likely to be open and honest. Conversely, you, or your learning and development team, may wish to conduct the evaluations yourselves.

One final thing to consider is the most appropriate method for delivering the course. For a taster, or introductory, session a trainer-led approach is generally best. Taster sessions can usually be run by one mindfulness specialist for large numbers of people. However, for mindfulness training purposes, smaller groups are better to allow for discussion and reflection on experiences. Mindfulness can be taught to larger groups with the support of additional trainers.

If your group includes senior managers, they may possibly feel that exploring their reactions and experiences in relation to mindfulness practices is inappropriate in a group setting. In addition, senior managers may not find it easy to attend all sessions and mindfulness training isn’t something you can dip in and out of. Senior staff often find one-to-one mindfulness coaching a better learning option.

Considering options for introductions and pilots

You can introduce mindfulness into an organisation in many ways. The correct approach varies from organisation to organisation. Experienced mindfulness specialists should be able to adapt their approach to meet your specific organisational culture and needs, giving your project a greater chance of success. Here are two options to consider.

A packed-lunch session

This kind of session can be a good option for companies where mindfulness training may be met with resistance or where time off for ‘personal development’ is not a priority. If staff are allowed a 15-minute break in the morning, 30 minutes for lunch and a 15-minute break in the afternoon, these breaks can be combined to create a one-hour slot at lunchtime. Participants can bring their own packed lunch (or you can provide a simple buffet) and eat while listening to an introduction to mindfulness. The introduction may include mindful eating and other quick techniques such as the three-step focus break (refer to Chapter 4) or mindfulness of breath (refer to Chapter 3). At the end of the session, participants should complete a brief paper-based questionnaire, including questions such as:

A half-day session

A half-day session can provide a much more in-depth experience of mindfulness and can form the first part of a longer programme. The half-day session may include:

Administer a short questionnaire at the end of the session to gauge interest and find out whether participants think that mindfulness training is something worth offering more widely or as a full course.

Taking care of the practicalities

A number of practical considerations must be borne in mind when organising a mindfulness taster or full course. First is the availability of a suitable room. Ideally, the room should be reasonably private (not one with glass walls that people can stare through, for example). The room should also be reasonably quiet and not too hot or cold. Most mindfulness at work specialists require a fairly standard training room with comfortable chairs, tables and possibly a digital projector, screen and flip chart. Some (but not all) mindfulness trainers require a room with yoga mats, with space for the participants to lie down for some of the mindfulness practices. Some mindful movement exercises use basic yoga techniques. Alternatively, mindful movement can be taught sitting on chairs. Ideally, the mindfulness trainer should have the opportunity to view the training room before they start delivering the course.

For an introductory session for a large number of people, a theatre or cabaret room layout is ideal. When teaching mindfulness to a group of 12–15 people, the room is best set up as a classic ‘U’, with the trainer at the top. Alternatively, you can use a circle or cabaret-style set-up if space permits. A classroom-style layout, with one small desk per person and everyone sitting apart, is likely to be unsuitable for mindfulness training as it restricts group interaction.

In many organisations members of the learning and development team are responsible for training rooms. Thus a member of this team will probably ensure that the room is set up in advance of the mindfulness trainer arriving. Sometimes the rooms are communal. If so, you need to ensure that the trainer knows how to get the equipment set up, and who to call if they need help.

The next practical consideration is how you market and publicise the development opportunity to staff. Is the mindfulness taster or full course ‘a personal development opportunity’ or ‘a professional development opportunity’, or both? Is it about staff wellbeing or productivity? Is it about resilience or creativity? You need to be clear about the purpose of the course in the message you send. Also consider the medium of communication: Posters, flyers, emails, messages on the intranet, announcements in staff newsletters and presentations during team briefings are all possibilities. Lastly, consider who’s best placed to do what. Mindfulness specialists may be happy to help you develop your promotional materials or even produce a first draft of flyers and intranet content. Don’t be afraid to ask for help — being the in-house champion of the project doesn’t automatically mean that you’re a mindfulness expert!

The final practical consideration is selection of participants. If you’re running a large-scale mindfulness taster or introduction, selection isn’t an issue. However, if you’re running a full mindfulness course, you may need to vet participants to ensure that they’re suitable. Mindfulness is effective in treating anxiety, depression and stress, but if people are suffering from particularly high levels of any of these problems, they may struggle with the course. One solution is to ask potential participants to complete an assessment tool such as the DASS 21 (refer to Chapter 6). This tool is freely available on the internet. Potential participants whose scores indicate severe or extremely severe depression, anxiety and stress may need to seek a therapeutic version of the course outside of work. When running a full mindfulness course, also consider the mix of people attending to ensure an even balance of job roles and departments. You may also wish to avoid line managers and their direct reports attending the same course.

Give careful consideration to whether attendance is to be voluntary or compulsory. Participants will be more engaged in learning if they’re doing so voluntarily. Willing participants are more likely to practise the skills at home than those who are coerced into attending. Notable examples exist of mindfulness being taught as part of compulsory programmes, such as for staff with poor attendance records or as part of leadership development. In these cases, many people who would not have attended a course voluntarily have discovered the benefits of mindfulness; indeed, some of them have gone on to become mindfulness champions in their organisations.

Generally, especially if this event is your first attempt at introducing mindfulness into your organisation, starting with volunteers is best.

Working in partnership and managing expectations

Being the mindfulness project leader in your organisation doesn’t automatically mean that you have to be an expert on all things mindful. You may need more support from your training provider than you’d normally expect from someone in their position.

Start conversations with potential providers with this fact in mind, and see how much support they’re willing to offer and whether they’ll partner you in the project. Although mindfulness has come of age, mindfulness in the workplace context is still in its adolescent stage. As pioneers of mindfulness in the workplace, you need to consider whether you can work together to write up and share your data outside the organisation, if all goes well. Your experience adds to the research base and helps other organisations considering mindfulness training. This approach to working should benefit both of you. Make sure that you clearly define who is responsible for what and when, so that you can manage each other’s expectations. Remember that you are both in this together and, unlike some box-ticking staff development activities, the outcomes really matter.

Identifying follow-up strategies

Following on from the (hopefully successful) mindfulness introduction, you need to agree what is to happen next. If others need to be involved in making the decision, make a date in their diaries in advance to ensure that you don’t lose momentum. Try to get everything in place for the follow-up before you begin the introductory session.

Check out our mindfulness pilot checklist online at www.dummies.com/go/mawessentials for a handy reference to help you plan your pilot session.

Different Approaches to Teaching Workplace Mindfulness

No ‘standard’ approaches to mindfulness training in the workplace exist, which can make choosing the approach that best suits your organisation’s needs rather tricky. The syllabuses of different mindfulness courses can be adapted for use in the workplace. This section provides an outline of four different approaches to teaching mindfulness. The syllabuses for all four are readily available in books or on the internet.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

MBSR was developed in the USA in the 1970s and has been the subject of much research. MBSR and MBCT (Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy) are similar and share around 80 per cent of their content. The main difference is that MBSR focuses on treating mental distress (such as stress) in general. MBCT focuses more on how a person thinks.

Until fairly recently, MBSR has been mainly used in a clinical setting, helping patients with diverse conditions ranging from stress to chronic pain and tinnitus, to substance abuse. In order to teach MBSR, instructors need to have completed lengthy training. MBSR training is delivered using a well-researched eight-week syllabus developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

In order to advertise that they’re running an ‘MBSR’ course, trainers must follow this eight-week syllabus. If training is advertised as ‘based on MBSR’, it is likely to use key aspects of the established syllabus but may deviate from it or have additions created by the trainer. Adaptations to suit individual client needs will make the latter the case for most workplace courses.

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)

MBCT was developed in the UK in the1990s by Zindal Segal, Mark Williams and John Teasdale. As with MBSR, MBCT was first developed to help people with depression in a clinical setting. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent organisation, and was set up by the UK government in 1999 to decide which drugs and treatments are available on the National Health Service (NHS) in England and Wales. MBCT is approved in the UK by NICE as a ‘treatment of choice’ for recurrent depression. MBCT blends mindfulness with aspects of cognitive behavioural therapy and is more focused on helping people find out how to manage their mind than the MBSR approach.

In 2011 Mark Williams (co-creator of MBCT) co-authored with the journalist Danny Penman, Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World. This book contains details of an eight-week MBCT course, adapted for a non-clinical population. It includes a CD of the mindfulness exercises covered on the course for the readers to practise at home. The exercises each take between eight and 12 minutes, which is less time than traditionally taught on MBCT and MBSR courses. The course also includes practical exercises (such as ‘habit releasers’), which aren’t part of the core MBCT syllabus. The Williams and Penman course is structured as follows:

For further information on this approach, visit the book’s website at www.franticworld.com.

‘The Mindfulness Exchange’ and Juliet’s organisation ‘A Head for Work’, are both major providers of mindfulness in the workplace training, and are leading the way in developing William and Penman’s approach. Both base their workplace mindfulness training on the eight-week course described in the book. For information on these two providers, visit www.mindfulness-exchange.com or www.aheadforwork.co.uk.

If you’re looking for an online eight-week mindfulness course try www.livemindfulonline.com, recently developed by Shamash. It includes lots of videos, downloadable audios, mindful exercises, weekly emails and an online community, combining both MBSR and MBCT.

Mindfulness At Work Training (MAWT)

MAWT is a five-week mindfulness course developed by the authors of this book based on MBCT, with the addition of specific applications of mindfulness in the workplace.

Weeks 1–2 cover the key aspects of mindfulness usually taught on weeks 1–4 of an MBCT course. Weeks 3–5 apply mindfulness to key work challenges, and include some aspects taught on weeks 5–8 of an MBCT course. As with MBCT and MBSR, home practice is an essential component, with short exercises (around 10 minutes each) included. A MAWT course is structured as follows:

Visit www.mawt.co.uk for more information.

Search Inside Yourself (SIY)

SIY was developed by Chade-Meng Tan (known as Meng), one of the first engineers to be hired at Google. When Google allowed engineers to spend 20 per cent of their time pursuing their own passions, Meng decided that he wanted to help his workmates nurture emotional intelligence through the practice of mindfulness. Meng worked with a range of people including emotional intelligence expert Dan Goleman, mindfulness trainers, psychologists and a CEO. He ultimately created a seven-week personal growth programme. SIY was launched in 2007, and since then more than 1,000 employees have participated in SIY courses with excellent results.

In 2012 Meng decided to make the principles and components of SIY available to companies everywhere and published them in his book, Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace). His programme focuses on the five key domains of emotional intelligence — self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills — and integrates mindfulness practice, science and leadership applications at all levels. In the example below, SIY is taught via three modules:

To find out more about this approach to teaching mindfulness coupled with emotional intelligence, invest in a copy of Meng’s book or visit www.siyli.org.

Hiring an Experienced Mindfulness Practitioner

Unlike many development courses routinely offered to staff by organisations, mindfulness isn’t an abstract concept that can be quickly learned from a book and translated into a course delivered by a member of the learning and development team. Even attending an eight-week course does not equip you to teach mindfulness to others.

A large amount of what is taught by mindfulness trainers is directly in response to individual participant needs. This aspect of teaching mindfulness can’t be covered by any book or by attending one course. It relies on a deep understanding of mindfulness gained over years of practising it, not to mention regular supervision from an even more experienced trainer. This section gives you the information you need to choose the mindfulness trainer best suited to your organisation.

Checking out credentials

No specific standards currently exist for trainers who teach mindfulness in the workplace. Good practice suggests that, as a minimum, trainers teaching mindfulness in the workplace should:

When we were at school, some of our teachers were excellent at their job and others were terrible! They were all qualified and had done the necessary training. You may find the same with mindfulness teachers. Read their CVs and other credentials with a pinch of salt rather than as an ultimate guide to their competency. We have both met many mindfulness teachers that wouldn’t meet the preceding credentials but are excellent teachers, seem to have a natural ability to be mindful, and have years of experience. We have also met highly trained mindfulness teachers who need more training and experience, and quite a number who can’t translate mindfulness for a corporate audience. Take time to meet the teacher, get to know them, and discuss your needs at length before hiring them.

Clarifying organisational experience

At present, mindfulness teacher training is generic and not tailored to workplace delivery. Many fine mindfulness trainers with years of experience may struggle to adapt their mindfulness training to the needs and constraints of individual organisations. Some of the methods currently taught routinely in mindfulness teacher training may not sit well in an organisational setting. For this reason, checking out potential trainers’ understanding of the business sector that you operate in is important. Make sure that your chosen mindfulness trainer uses language, analogies and methods that sit well with your audience.

Judging compatibility

When selecting a mindfulness trainer for your organisation, try to select one who is happy to adopt a partnership-working approach. Being open and honest is important so that you can establish a collaborative means of working built on trust.

Your chosen trainer should feel comfortable wearing several hats. She may need to help you write flyers and publicity material. Maybe she can assist you in designing, administering or even managing the evaluation process. If she’ll be required to send emails directly to participants (for example, welcoming them to the course, confirming home practice or chasing evaluation completion), you need to be sure that she uses appropriate corporate language. Think carefully about what you require from your mindfulness trainer at the outset to manage expectations.

Agreeing on what’s possible

When you enter into discussion with a mindfulness trainer for the first time, do so with an open mind. Let the trainer discuss what mindfulness can do for you and your organisation — possibilities may exist that you haven’t yet considered. Make sure that the trainer is fully aware of what’s important for you. Doing so early on in the process helps you both identify whether any of the outcomes you desire are unachievable. Discovering this at the outset is much better than later in the process. Also agree early on how success will be measured, both in training terms and in relation to organisational outcomes.

When selecting a mindfulness trainer, look for one who ideally has sector experience and thus understands how your staff work and the pressures they may be under. Make sure that the trainer has attended recognised mindfulness teacher training, and by the time she reaches you has had a minimum of two years’ personal experience of practising mindfulness. Make sure that she’s flexible in her approach, and willing and able to wear several hats to help you during the critical phase of piloting mindfulness within your organisation.